When Bill Snyder became Kansas Stateâs head football coach in 1988, he inherited the worst football program in Division I-A history. Kansas State was 299â509â41 in 93 years and was the only college football program to lose 500 games. It had recorded one win in its
last 38 games, was also winless in 27 straight gamesâthe longest drought in college football at the timeâand home attendance averaged about 13,000. The football program had a trophy case with one inside of itâthe second-place trophy from the 1982
Independence Bowl. Little could anybody predict that Snyder would soon engineer a total transformation in Manhattan, Kansas.
From his humble beginnings in St. Joseph, Missouri, Snyder rose to greatness, bringing KState up from the ashes to a No. 1 ranking, six 11-win seasons in a span of seven years, and one Big 12 Championship. He still wasnât finished. After a three-year retirement, Snyder
returned to lead the Wildcats to another Big 12 title.
He accomplished the greatest turnaround in sports by inspiring young men through his visionary 16 Wildcat Goals for Success and through a relentless work ethic. Snyder put in 18-hour days, not eating until a late-night dinnerâonce the workday had been
completedâand subsisting on 10 cups of coffee a day. To further increase his productivity, he even tried getting hypnotized so that he could live completely without sleep.
In 2015, he became just the fourth person in history to be inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame as an active coach. In this new memoir, Snyder reflects on a successful yet complicated life, detailing the grueling work weeks and the virtues he
doubled down on during his final years as head coach, all the while battling throat cancer.
Readers will discover a multi-faceted portrait of one of college footballâs greatest leaders, his triumphs and defeats, his greatness and his flaws, and his passion to lead a championship teamânot once, but twiceâwhile developing young men.